State wants to reconfigure the business sector in 2025, identify strategic sectors and sell the rest
The Government of Luís Montenegro wants to reconfigure the State’s business universe, and according to the State Budget proposal report for 2025, released this Thursday, a working group was created whose objective is to identify “with due justification” the companies strategic and those that should be sold. The team must also identify for the companies to be sold “the method or regime of disposal and estimate of the resulting revenue”.
The government’s plan, advanced in the State Budget proposal (OE), is to allow the start, from 2025, of a process of structural reconfiguration of the State’s business sector (SEE). Among the SEE companies are CP – Comboios de Portugal, Infraestruturas de Portugal, Águas de Portugal and Empresa de Desenvolvimento e Infraestruturas do Alqueva (EDIA).
As a general guideline, the Government says that companies in the State’s business sector “must play a relevant role in the implementation of public policies, assuming a strong commitment to environmental, social and governance requirements”.
Government does not foresee revenue from privatizations, but the sale of TAP could move forward
No privatization revenues are foreseen for 2025 in the Budget presented this Thursday, despite the expectation that the sale of TAP will take place next year. One of the SEE companies held by the Treasury whose fate must be decided by this working group is TAP SGPS, the parent company of the TAP universe, which today holds the assets left over from the spin-off and restructuring of TAP SA.
Joaquim Miranda Sarmento said this Thursday that the Government is in preliminary dialogue with the three potential interested parties in TAP (Lufthansa, IAG and Air France/KLM), but has not committed to a privatization date or model.
“We are in dialogue with the three airlines that showed interest in privatizing the company. This is a preliminary dialogue, we are analyzing the intentions of each of these companies”, stated the official.
The statement was made after the Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Hugo Espírito Santo, said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper Faro de Vigo, published this Thursday, that he would like to move forward with the definition of the TAP privatization model later this year, and complete it in the first half of 2025.
“I would really like to carry out the process in the first half of 2025. And that means reaching the end and being able to decide”, stated Hugo Espírito Santo. The Secretary of State also told the Spanish newspaper that “he was very happy” with the expressions of interest he has felt in relation to TAP, including outside Europe.
This week, the prime minister stated, in an interview with SIC, that the specifications are still being designed, adding that “there are many interested parties” and that up to 100% of the capital can be privatized. However, it also opened the door to the possibility of the company remaining in public hands if the State is unable to guarantee that the hub is in Lisbon.
